know your best cellars

Wine appreciation.... this one feels a bit controversial to write about since I was raised Baptist and have had more than one job where I have had to sign a document stating that I would refrain from alcohol. So, for those people that I love who are reading this and still feel the way that I felt when I was in my early twenties I want to share what it took to change my perspective... because at 22 I was still very much anti-alcohol.

I have a friend who developed a relationship with God a little later in life than my experience. He was in his late twenties, and was very much ok with drinking as a new Christian (which was a constant area of contention in our conversation). Months later a mutual friend started going to church with my friend and eventually decided that she wanted to follow God and become a Christian, and that mutual friend told me that she would not have made a decision to devote her life to God if our mutual friend had not regularly had a drink with her. That was huge for me. I did not start drinking the next day or anything... but after some reflection I decided that I felt differently about alcohol than what I had originally thought... And last night I had a drink with someone who has spent many years disregarding Chrsitianity and we had a wonderful discussion about faith.

Anyway, that being said over the last few years I have developed wine appreciation. William even took me on a date to stomp grapes at a winery. I have been to a few wine tastings and have discovered that Moscato is my favorite... particularly Moscato D' Asti. Olive Garden's is REALLY good.





Publix has two bottles that are almost always $5 and they are also really good. My favorite Red is Turning Leaf's Pinot Noir. The Biltmore also has a Red that I really like. William is good at pairing certain wines with our food and I think that is fun. I would like to host a wine tasting for some of my friends!

Personal Money Management

I have worked or volunteered close to full time in nonprofits for about ten years. Money has never been that important to me. Obviously, I want to have enough to do the things that I enjoy but I can do that on an annual salary of about 26k to 30k. In my last position I was making about double that which was just astonishing to me. I thought that maybe I would make that much at the peak of my career twenty years from now. So, in my 6 month lucrative position I bought a company and enjoyed a very nice trip across California.

I've realized that people definitely consider around 30k not a whole lot of money. I also know that I'm pretty good with about that much. I have also busted everything that is in me over the last several years to make about 30k. After taxes a monthly take home paycheck is between $1600 and $1800. Of course, that usually includes benefits... but I'm just talking strictly cash.

Since people don't considere $1700 a month to be very much I started thinking it must be easy to find a way to bring in that much each month. And, after a little research I think it actually is! Look what I have discovered:

Housesitting or Hosting an International student: $500 a month
Renting out a room in your home: $600 to $800 a month
A Part time Job working about 10 hours a week: $500 a month
Contract Work: nannying/updating websites/ or selling personal items: $200 a month

You hardly even have to work! I was just shocked. Maybe the rest of the world already knew this. I did not. You clearly have to be flexible, and maybe even a bit entreprenual. You probably can't do this while you have teeny kiddos. However, this is definitely changing the way that I evaluate how I spend my time. Two part time jobs at about 30 hours a week total get me up to a 30k salary. It wouldn't take a lot of effort to be at double that ammount and that could all go into savings/401k accounts.

be a foster mom

Ok, so I’m not signed up as a foster parent yet. William and I have been talking about it though. Not in a serious way… but in a “one step beyond all of those crazy dreams I am always having” way. What we are considering on an even more serious level is hosting an international student for an academic year. I am very excited about this. I have been talking with someone about hosting a 15 year old girl from China. She loves to volunteer and is into the arts. She is interested in journalism as a career. She can speak English conversationally and she will attend a Christian school in Cumming. We think it might be really fun! I found the post on Craig’s List so I still need to follow die diligence and make sure everything is legit. I have checked out the school’s website, but want to talk with someone there. She would be with us from August to May, and we have the option to renew for her remaining high school career if both she and we are interested.

I’m excited that she would add to our youth group at church! I think it would be a ideal because William and I are in a stage of life right now where we are around teenagers pretty regularly. So, she would have extra-curricular social opportunities through that.

This also fits in very well with the new job I have. William and I know a couple through our small group who has their own Book/Author Marketing Company. They met with William and I on Saturday and asked if I was interested. I definitely am! I really want a break from working in the non-profit field and also want the opportunity to work on her t-shirt company a bit more. This will provide that. I will work full days Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I can use my other days to work on Origin One. I’m really excited to work in this sector! They have to read books for their job! And update social media!

Anyway, back to the international student opportunity. A final perk is that it pays $500 a month. That is supposed to cover the additional costs for food or utilities, but $500 is very generous for that. Who knew hosting international students could be lucrative? Not me. This has started me on a new wave of thought. I will post on that next.

Open a Bed and Breakfast

So, William and I think that we might actually want to do this some day. When we stayed in the B&B in Alabama we really enjoyed it. So, in my unconscious little ambitious brain I have decided that William and I should get experience in this sector if we want to one day run a B&B. So, what do I do… I decide to subscribe to The Caretaker Gazette. I read that this was the place to get jobs where you house-sit or care for farms, B&B’s, ranches, or short-term gigs. The subscription was about $30 for the year and let me tell you… it has already been worth it! Not because William and I have landed any Caretaker jobs through the Gazette, but because it opened up my eyes to a whole new field. Who knew that you can move to Canada and manage the households of the wealthy, and make between 90,000 and 125,000 each year?! Those opportunities are not the only kind. There are also options that allow you to have an additional job or source of income and you just live in someone else’s home.
I started looking for opportunities on Craig’s List as well. And… that was fruitful, as I am currently sitting in someone else’s home, in their chair, with their television on in the background to entertain their dog, their two little birds and their giant (almost scary) macaw. Today the macaw discovered paper can be ripped… so all of the newspaper on the floor ready and waiting to catch bird poo is now scattered all over the floor… thanks Abbaco.
House-sitting is a financially beneficial hobby… I will mention more about that later.

Updates on my badges

It's funny to me that my last update was about Public Speaking, because I've had a few opportunities between now and then and I pretty much don't like it at all. I've also discovered that I don't like to raise money. I'm only 28, so that could change... and it may if I continue down the track I'm on, but as of now I pretty much hate it. The problem with that is everything in my life right now kind of circles around raising money.

I had the 5k this past weekend to support Engage Burkina and Joanna. For a few weeks I was involved in a campaign to fight muscular dystrophy. I'm signed up for Relay for Life which is in a few weeks. We had a silent auction at the church since my last post. And my full time job includes a monthly goal of raising $500. I told a friend the other day that I keep pondering if God is trying to teach me how to raise money right now...

I am hoping that I like to earn money though, as I just bought the small company based out of Laguna Beach. For those of you that don't know about it- William and I went to California and bought a company at the beginning of April. It is a T-shirt company and the t-shirts had been marketed to celebrities. There is even a link to a photograph on our website of Sharon Stone in the shirt. The website is www.iamoriginone.com

We haven't had a chance to do anything with the company over the last month, but that should change in the upcoming months. I put the website on the back of the shirts for Joanna's race, and I wore one of our Origin One shirts out today. We still need to update the website and follow up with some contacts that we were given. At least least half of the profits will be given to a non-profit- right now the plan is for that to be the foster care initiatives at the YMCA.

So, in the upcoming weeks I should be posting on drafting a business plan, and building a web site. I will also likely be starting a newsletter at work. I wanted to do this as an annual thing for my personal life, but just don't have the time- so work will be the way to go.

Public Speaking

I'm unsure if there is a certain number of people I need to be speaking in front of to earn this badge. I have spoken in front of hundreds, but not thousands. I speak in front of ten to fifty all the time.

I spoke in front of hundreds in my church as a teenager, and I spoke at a Baptist Student Union conference in college in front of hundreds as well. My experience may be all related to spirituality... I led a chapel service in college, I give announcements at church on Sundays.... this one isn't hard for me. I was even interviewed about being a Christian in high school by PBS... which you may still be able to find if you google me. I don't have to be prepared for public speaking. I'm pretty comfortable with it. I would have to be more prepared for giving a speech or speaking at a press conference. Haven't done that yet!

Get Organized Update

So, in the recipe portion of my get organized chapter I included a few meals from our "Dinner and a Movie" Cookbook. The first one was for Beef Stroganoff and to watch the movie "Stripes". Well that movie is really old and rated R, so I thought today it would be rated PG. Nope, lots of naked.... and also not funny (at least not for the first 20 to 30 minutes) so we turned that off. The meal was mediocre. It looked like it would be really good, but it had too much sour cream. And, since we didn't finish the movie I have no idea why the movie went with Beef Stroganoff... nor do I know how they could have possibly shown that on TBS.

Last night we watched "Harry and the Hendersons" which was still really cute as an adult until I fell asleep about forty minutes in. To accompany the movie we were supposed to make Big Foot Foot Long Hotdogs. Chicken Hotdogs. Well, to make the hotdogs you had to puree the chicken in the blender. This was one that William thought would be fun to make... so I told him that I could not take part in pureed chicken and we needed to schedule this on a workday so that he could make it and the blender would be washed when I got home... pureed chicken is too much for me to see in the same blender where we make smoothies. So, when I got home it smelled wonderful! I was shocked. Unfortunately, I could only take a bite before looking at it and thinking about the pureed chicken... and then we went out to get Mexican. I really tried... but it just grossed me out. So much, that at the mexican restaraunt the enchillada definition included the words "ground meat" and I clarified that the chicken was shredded.